SF Man Awarded $15.6 Million For Being Unknowing Coffee Label Model
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:09 am
A man whose image was used for years on Taster's Choice coffee labels has won a big jury award, and now he's speaking out.
At a news conference in San Francisco Tuesday, Russell Christoff says he first spied his face on a Taster's Choice jar in 2002 when he went looking for Bloody Mary mix at a Rite Aid store. There, staring into a cup of warm joe, was the former model and now kindergarten teacher himself.
A Los Angeles jury awarded Christoff more than 15 million dollars for using his likeness without his permission.
Glendale-based Nestle says it will appeal. Christoff's lawyer says his client's likeness has been used over the years on eight different Taster's Choice products in 18 different countries. Why did it take Christoff so many years to spot his image on the coffee jar? He's says he uses whole beans for coffee, not the freeze-dried stuff.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/4153666/detail.html
At a news conference in San Francisco Tuesday, Russell Christoff says he first spied his face on a Taster's Choice jar in 2002 when he went looking for Bloody Mary mix at a Rite Aid store. There, staring into a cup of warm joe, was the former model and now kindergarten teacher himself.
A Los Angeles jury awarded Christoff more than 15 million dollars for using his likeness without his permission.
Glendale-based Nestle says it will appeal. Christoff's lawyer says his client's likeness has been used over the years on eight different Taster's Choice products in 18 different countries. Why did it take Christoff so many years to spot his image on the coffee jar? He's says he uses whole beans for coffee, not the freeze-dried stuff.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/4153666/detail.html
They changed their labels a few months ago and this design is now long gone.